9.21.2015

Sashiko Mending Meets Slow Fashion and Studio Work

I've just updated my website with Sashiko Mending photographs and an entire mending portfolio. This thrills me beyond measure! I'm so excited to finally have this dedicated space to share samples of my mending work and to offer these images to other mending enthusiasts for inspiration. I've been working primarily with worn denim for the Sashiko Mending but I'm also branching out to use these same stitches to recycle denim into new garments and accessories--stay tuned. And taking note of the other garments in my mending pile that need some attention but are not made from denim.

I love this work. I'm shocked that I'm so passionate about mending two years later. If you'd asked the younger, admittedly edgier, admittedly more opinionated version of my creative self what work she'd be doing in another decade I promise you she would not have said, mending. Makes me giggle now.

But she wouldn't have been so excited about making a paper craft book for kids either and I was over-the-moon to publish The Paper Playhouse: Awesome Art Project for Kids Using Paper, Boxes and Books earlier this year. And I love this part. The part that surprises us. The part that pushes us beyond our comfort zone. The part that lets some levity and intuition and imagination into the process so we can stay engaged and activated as we work. As we live. As we move through this experience of living. As we grow.

So more mending work for me is on the horizon. Brainstorming about how to take this work to the next level, to go deeper, to push beyond what I've already learned. I want to keep creating more mending techniques--some more complicated and some even simpler--and I want to experiment with different fabrics, different garments, and then go ahead and try some recycled fabrics for new accessories too.

I love this work. Did I already say that? Forgive my repetition. It suits me. It surprises me. It excites me. It falls into the sustainable fiber arts world that inspires me the most. Using recycled materials and basic techniques to deepen our relationship to fashion and fiber and craft? Yes! Makes me cheer.

And now, I must stop procrastinating and pontificating about mending and start putting my studio into boxes. Many boxes. So many boxes. Oh my, the boxes! We move to NY in just nine days. So soon! You can follow along over on IG to see our transition from a very urban apartment in Oakland, CA to a very rural farmhouse in the Hudson Valley in NY. I won't be back here to blog again until we are moved and living among all the boxes in our 200-year-old farmhouse in NY. Wish me luck!

2 comments:

Thank you for your mending inspiration! Despite loving a sashiko jacket I saw while in college it never occurred to me to mend my clothes in this way. duh. I'm grateful that you post about your mending and have inspired me to do the same. www.laurenannpaul.com